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Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2014

The Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS), the last and biggest race in Singapore’s running calendar took place just this weekend. Historically, the SCMS was also the first major race I took part in 2009 when I ran my first half-marathon, which eventually led me to running my first full marathon five months later.

Race Expo

The race expo was held concurrently with the Sports & Lifestyle Expo. This enabled both local and international runners to be able to collect their race packs while look around for any deals and last-minute equipment needed before race day.

After collecting my race pack, the first stop was picking up a pair of brand new shades from my sponsors, Nuke Optics. They had just launched the new Blitz XI, which currently retails for $90 with the clear and yellow lens.

The second stop was visiting the Train Live Compete Booth. They were there to promote the first ever Runners Convention, which was being held in February next year. The convention featured guest speakers such as Lizzy Hawker (5 time UTMB Female Winner), Ricky Lightfoot (Salomon International Athlete) as well as other elite athletes. If you’re interested, please do sign up soon as seats are limited.

The Train Live Compete Crew, with Janet, HK100 Race Director.

But I was also there to visit a very important person. Janet Ng was one of the race directors of the Vibram Hong Kong 100 who had recently relocated to Singapore. It was an honor to meet her and I managed to speak to her on everything to do with trail and ultra running. She was also there to help out with the Runners Convention as well as help promote the WAA brand in Singapore, which specializes in equipment for multi-day races such as the Marathon des Sables and Grand to Grand Ultra (the shirt on the right of me is the WAA Ultra Carrier Shirt).

Race Pack

Other than the race singlet and bib, there wasn’t really anything much in the race pack. Whats new would be a colored wristband which represented which area of Singapore you were from (orange is for West).

Race Day

I had about 2 hours of sleep before waking up at 1 am to have breakfast before taking the first train down to Orchard. I reached Orchard at about 3:30 am then made my way to the baggage deposit area at Anguilla Park Car park. I was fortunate to be there early enough to deposit my bag as I wasn’t issued with a baggage plastic bag during the race pack collection (despite having indicated so earlier). After taking a quick leak at a nearby porta-loo, I slowly made my way down to the start line.

I positioned myself nearer to the front of the pack and waited for the flag off. I initially ran with the 4:15 hour pacer group, but eventually dropped them at East Coast Park as I needed to use to the toilet. I ran my own pace thereafter but started to lose focus after the 25 km mark. Physically, I was hydrating well and eating the necessary amount of gel, but my mind was all over the place. I struggled through the rest of the course, with my legs starting to give way as I exited East Coast Park. I did have a few moments of relief when a few groups volunteers came out to offer runners with coke and even fruits like watermelon.

With all that said and done, I finished the race with a net timing of about 04:36:15. My second fastest timing of the 4 SCMS events that I have taken part in so far. Click here to view the race data on Strava.

An e-copy of the certificate can be downloaded on the official results page.

Not my best timing and performance for sure, but my second fastest timing out of the 4 that I’ve taken part in.